Maintenance Optimization for Large Coal-fired Power Plants

Volume 7, Number 6, November 2011 - Paper 4 - pp. 539-544

ULRICH AHA, ALEXANDER FINDEISEN and HANS JOACHIM KRAUTZ

Chair of Power Plant Technology, Brandenburg University of Technology at CottbusWalther-Pauer-Strasse 5, 03046 Cottbus, Germany

Abstract:

Since power is not a product suitable for storage, it must be consumed at the moment of generation or go to waste. The goal, therefore, is to minimise the costs of scheduled and unscheduled plant downtimes as well as the financial losses involved. A tool for optimizing maintenance cycles and avoiding the above-mentioned downtimes and expenses is the software program INSTRA. With some preparatory work, INSTRA will optimize maintenance cycles and create a database of the maintenance jobs to be performed. Additionally, INSTRA can be constantly modified to serve as a basis for decision making regarding maintenance optimization as new technologies in the power plant sector (e.g., lignite drying, CCS technologies) are developed. The simultaneous sampling and implementation of new unit-specific data will ensure that the software tool remains as realistic as possible.